Bildu sees a “teasing” to impose the Spanish kit on Basque triathletes in the European
The biggest sporting event in Europe will be the triathlon field since the start of the pandemic. Bilbao will host from tomorrow until next Saturday 24 almost 3,000 athletes -and 5,000 companions- from thirty countries. Among them are nearly a thousand Spanish athletes. A delegation that also includes Basque athletes and on whom the nationalist left has once again put the focus on competing under “la rojigualda”. The coalition of the abertzale left, in the mouth of its spokesperson in the Bilbao City Council, the lawyer Jone Goirizelaia, has described as “teasing” that Basque athletes are forced to wear “the rojigualda or the French tricolor” .
For Bildu’s representative, it is “incomprehensible” that the Consistory governed by the PNV, defender of the official status of the Basque national teams, “does not make even the slightest effort” to prevent “Basque athletes” from having to equip themselves with the clothing of “the state selection, although it is not a competition between selections”. Goirizelaia recalls that the formation led by Andoni Ortuzar and held by the mayor of the city has historically supported the Basque teams “and now supports and even promotes an event that prohibits the colors of Euskal Herria from dressing up”.
EH Bildu has even called on athletes and the citizens of the Biscayan capital to “show their commitment to Euskal Herria and the officialdom in the streets”. He urges everyone to do it “in the way that they think best”: “We have a golden opportunity to claim our identity before Europe, we can show the world that we are a nation.”
Basque sports law
For Goirizelaia, the PNV “swells its chest” the favor of the international officialdom of the Basque teams but later supports and attends the organization of events that “obviously prohibit this option.”
In addition to the thousand Spanish athletes, more than 1,300 triathletes from the United Kingdom, more than a centenarian from France and Germany and somewhat less from Italy and Portugal are expected to arrive in Bilbao. In total, competitions will be held in six disciplines: duathlon, cross duathlon, aquathlon, cross triathlon, aquabike and medium distance triathlon.
EH Bildu’s reproach to the PNV comes only a week after both formations, together with the PSE, reached an agreement in the Basque Parliament to draw up a new Basque sports law that resulted in an amendment urging Basque federations to encourage the participation of “their sports teams in state and international sports activities and competitions, including official ones.” The objective of achieving official status for the Euskadi national teams in international competitions is an old aspiration of nationalism that, except in specific cases, such as the Soka Tira Federation or the pelota Federation, has come up against the impossibility of overcoming international sports regulations which prevails in most federations.
European Championship and Vuelta
This is not the first time that the nationalist left is opposed to Bilbao hosting events in which the Spanish team attends or competes under its organization. Bilbao should have been one of the twelve venues that played Eurocopa 2020 -which finally, as a result of the pandemic, was delayed until July 2021-. From EH Bildu a campaign was carried out against the presence of the Spanish soccer team that had to play at least two games at the San Mamés pitch. The campaign against the European Championship had numerous acts of rejection. Finally, the pandemic postponed its celebration and the organization a year later collided with the capacity limitations imposed by the Basque Government and which led to the departure of Bilbao as one of the venues.
More recently, the Biscayan capital welcomed the arrival of one of the stages of the Cycling Tour of Spain. The fifth stage reached the city on August 24 and returned from a day later. In this case, there was no previous campaign against him, but there was a use of his media spotlight. Throughout the entire route, the nationalist left spread its messages in favor of independence among the groups of fans who came to see the stages that ran along Basque roads.